Shipping lines told to wind down Iranian business

The US administration has given shipping lines 6-months to leave or cease operations with Iran following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal.

Those who do not comply will ‘face exposure to sanctions or an enforcement action under US law’ according to documentation relating to the withdrawal from the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

A US state department official said: “Shipping, shipbuilding, ports – all of those sanctions that are related to both the energy sector and then the banking and the shipping or transportation of that energy, will all have a six-month wind down. Everything else is going to have a 90-day wind down.”

The JCPOA was signed by the leaders of Iran, Russia, China, the UK, France, Germany, the EU and the US in 2015, and lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limitations to its nuclear programme.

Thomas Carden, deputy manager for the UK Club Managers Thomas Miller, said that an assessment of the likely impact on the shipping industry would not be possible until the remaining JCPOA signees clarified their position.

The UK, France and Germany opposed Trump’s decision to withdraw, and will now work to see if some sort of deal can remain in place.

Trump has consistently promised to withdraw the US from what he described as ‘the worst deal in history’. The President took particular issue with a set of ‘sunset clauses’ whereby the conditions Iran has to meet disappear over a number of years.